Delhi ex-law minister’s custody extended till June 21

A court here on Friday extended the police custody of former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar for two days in the fake degree case, though the Aam Aadmi Party leader later moved a bail plea.

Delhi Police sought Tomar’s custody to confront him with Madan Pratap Chauhan, a man being interrogated in the case and some officials of the law college from where he claimed to have obtained his law degree.

Police told court that Tomar was yet to reply to various questions put to him regarding the case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Navjeet Budhiraja extended Tomar’s police custody and allowed Delhi Police to quiz him till June 21, but directed police not to seek his further custody.

Tomar was in police custody for the past 10 days after he was arrested on June 9. The police have slapped a case of cheating, forgery and conspiracy against him.

Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Shrivastava told magistrate the former law minister was required to be confronted with Chauhan who allegedly provided the B.Sc. degree to Tomar. Chauhan is already being interrogated and both of them were needed to be confronted with each other, he said.

He requested the court to direct the probe agency to get call detail record of Chauhan and alleged he has nexus with Delhi’s Trinagar assembly ex-legislator Nand Kishore Garg, and the two were running a racket in providing fabricated documents.

Tomar won the Trinagar assembly seat by defeating BJP leader Garg.

Khosla said police were manipulating facts in the case and humiliating his client.

He added that there was contradiction between the statement of the vice chancellor of Tilka Manjhi University and the principal of the law college from where Tomar obtained his law degree.

The vice chancellor has said the entire degree is fake whereas the law college principal claimed that Tomar studied in his college, he told the court.

The prosecutor added that the degree was issued by the university and this contradictory statement needed to be interrogated.

Without the presence of Tomar, such facts could not be ascertained and therefore his further custody was required, police told the court.

Police told court that a questionnaire containing over 200 questions was supplied to Tomar. He replied to various questions but answers to some were still incomplete and his answers would help in getting to the final conclusion of the investigation.

Tomar’s counsel opposed the police plea, saying there was no requirement of further police custody as police had already kept him in custody for 10 days. The case is based on documentary evidence, he added.

Meanwhile, Tomar moved his bail plea in the court on Friday.

Magistrate Budhiraja asked Delhi Police to file reply on the bail plea and fixed the matter before the concerned magistrate on Monday.

On June 16, Tomar withdrew his bail plea from a sessions court,saying he would file a fresh bail application on June 19.